Standardized tests of English It has been shown that "in language testing, an implicit (and frequently explicit) assumption has long been that the criteria for measuring profi ciency in English around the world should be candidates' use of particu lar features of English which are used and accepted as norms by highly educated native speakers of English (Lowenberg, 1993, p. This is so, as Lowenberg points out, despite the fact that native (i.e., Inner Circle) English users are less and less involved in interactions in English